AN ARMY OF PROBLEM SOLVERS

BY SHAUN LONEY

“Ground-breaking Canadian social entrepreneur Shaun Loney shows how it’s done. Innovation that leaves you asking, ‘Why isn’t everyone doing this already?’”—Michael Toye, Executive Director of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network

“Shaun Loney connects the dots and articulates a way forward. This book is for everyone who cares about reconciliation.”—Molly McCracken, Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba office

“Shaun Loney's ideas are simultaneously simple and ingenious. Start a revolution; read this book!”—Dr. Evelyn Forget, Professor of Economics and Canada’s leading expert on guaranteed annual income

“This book is a timely and important milestone in the journey towards rebuilding a social value marketplace.”—David LePage, founder and CEO of Buy Social and founder of Enterprising Non-Profits

“Loney offers convincing evidence that social entrepreneurs have answers that business and government don’t.”—Julia Deans, Executive Director of Futurpreneur

“On behalf of the team, we are so pleased to see this second book. We’re glad to be on the front lines of the solutions revolution.”—Lucas Stewart, co-founder Social Enterprise Centre and Manitoba Green Retrofit

“Our Elders are recognizing social enterprises from back when our communities were healthy. Aki Energy is transforming Manitoba’s North, one nation at a time. ”—Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO)

“This book offers us a way of being involved in ‘pimatisiwin’ (fullness of life) and can address our learned dependency.”—Very Rev. Stan McKay, Cree Elder and former moderator of the United Church of Canada

“Changemaking 101 by one of Canada’s leading changemakers.”—Barb Steele, Executive Director of Ashoka Canada

over 7,000 bookshave been sold!!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Unemployment on First Nations and in inner city neighbourhoods? Climate change? Exponential diabetes rates? Unaffordable government? High incarceration rates? There are no shortage of chronic and insatiable societal problems.

Shaun Loney’s An Army of Problem Solvers offers good news at a time when we need it most. Loney draws on his experience as one of Canada’s leading social enterprise developers and his time as a senior civil servant to offer up a new and practical vision.

The problem isn’t the problems, he says. The problem is that governments prevent problem solvers from doing their job.

Just who are the problem solvers? Loney makes the case that social enterprises, social entrepreneurs and the small farm movement comprise the “solutions economy”. Governments will soon understand that it is their job to “make it easy for problem solvers.”

The book comes at a time when Canada is discussing what reconciliation between Indigenous Canadians and the rest of the country means. Loney argues that we can’t achieve it without allowing the re-emergence of local economies.An Army of Problems Solvers answers the question: “what does nation-to-nation mean?”

As Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson says in her Preface: “At the heart of this strategy is a big step towards creating a new Nation-to-Nation relationship. Shaun’s book defines more clearly what this means. Nation-to-Nation doesn’t just mean getting rid of diesel fuel in remote communities, it means having our own utilities that sell renewable energy to heat and power our homes. Nation-to-Nation doesn’t mean simply making imported food more affordable, it means transforming our local food economies. Nation-to-Nation doesn’t mean raising social assistance rates, it means implementing a basic income guarantee. Nation-to-Nation even includes having our own currencies (alongside Canadian currency) that promotes local businesses.”

ABOUT shaun loney

Shaun has co-founded and mentored 11 social enterprises, including BUILD Inc, which won the 2011 Scotia Bank EcoLiving Green Business of the Year, and the 2013 Manitoba Apprenticeship Employer of the Year. Beforeco-founding BUILD Inc, Shaun was Director of Energy Policy for theGovernment of Manitoba. Loney is the first prairie Canadian to be awarded an Ashoka Fellowship (2015) and was Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014. Shaun lives in Winnipeg, with his partner Fiona. Between them they have three boys - Aandeg, Weslee and Owen. Shaun is proud to be part of a strong and visionary social enterprise team that is flourishing across the country. An Army of Problem Solvers is Shaun's second book.

Table of contents

PREFACE - Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK1. The Upside of Down: Confessions of an Ex-bureaucrat2. Who are the Problem Solvers? How the Solutions Economy Works3. Economic Reconciliation: Re-imagining Indigenous Economics

LET'S SOLVE SOME PROBLEMS4. Food for Change: An Example of Connecting Problem Solvers with Problems5. Power Up: Energy and Employment Solutions for First Nations6. Growing Solutions: Diversifying the Food System to Curb Health and Other Costs7. Correcting the Corrections System: An Employment Solution to an Expensive Crime Problem

8. Making Money, Making Change: Social Entrepreneurs9. Measuring Change: A 'Seven Generations' Economy10. On Uber and Complementary Currencies: Modern Tools for Old Problems

THE REINVENTION OF GOVERNMENT11. Reinventing Government: A Word to Bureaucrats and Politicians12. The End of Welfare: The Case for a Cost-Neutral Basic Income Guarantee13. A $15 per Hour Minimum Wage: Full-Time Work Should Pay the Bills14. Agree to Agree: Transforming the Political SpectrumCONCLUSION - An Army of Problem Solvers

WATSON LAKE, YUKONYUKON CONSERVATION SOCIETY

NOVEMBER 21ST, 2017

MANITOBA NON-PROFIT HOUSING ASSOCIATION

NOVEMBER 22ND, 2017

KENORA, ONTARIOTREATY 3

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

PORT ALBERNI, BC

Photos

media

Shaun Loney left his bureaucracy-heavy civil servant job in pursuit of a new idea he had - to pull people out of poverty one must create new opportunities out of the very things standing in their way.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur says it's working.

"We can use entrepreneurial tools to solve social problems and environmental problems," Loney tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

According to Loney, social enterprises are economic ventures that solve problems while shying away from government funding.

"In Canada, we believe the defining issue is connecting people who most need the work with the work that most needs to be done," he explains.

Loney co-founded Akki Energy, what he calls a social enterprise incubator, in Manitoba.

"Aki' is an Ojibwe word for Earth and we're doing geothermal on First Nations. But we've started several other social enterprises through it on many other First Nations in Manitoba," Loney tells Tremonti.

"In fact, the two largest geothermal companies in all of Western Canada are social enterprises that we've started, they're employing people where there were no where there was no employment before."The high utility bills on First Nations was an opportunity, Loney says. By providing renewable energy options that would lower bills significantly, they were able to use some of the bill reductions to pay for the upfront infrastructure costs of geothermal — and thus engaging First Nations communities in an economic development process. Loney says that they've been able to do seven million dollars worth of geothermal in just three years."It's very labor intensive work. So wherever that happens we're employing people from the First Nations themselves."

Loney tells Tremonti that the government generally asks First Nations to apply for funding when it comes to renewable energy and brings in outside companies for those services.

"There's no economic development in that whole process so we've turned that on its head and said 'why don't we set up utilities'? The First Nations can operate in, and employ folks from their own nations to install their renewable energy, and then use the bill reductions to pay for the up front costs of that infrastructure."

It's an exciting turn of events says Loney but that doesn't mean it hasn't come without some push back.

In May, the government shut down an eight million dollar geothermal project and suggested to apply for funding to get it back running. Loney and co. refuse to do this.

"This is how colonial governments … do business. They want to maintain control and they don't believe that the First Nation families, Indigenous communities can do anything for themselves."

"And we're showing them quite different."

Loney says his new book, An Army of Problem Solvers: Reconciliation and The Solutions Economy, looks at all the different ways the government gets in the way of progress happening and wants to challenge the government to think beyond the colonial past.

"Let's look at Canada and how it can be in its next 150 years."

This segment was produced by Winnipeg network producer Suzanne Dufresne."

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